In Any Other World
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and five: Hanging out together, Mike confesses something to Quinn.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 14th cycle. Now cycle 15!_

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**"In Any Other World"  
Mike & Quinn  
Sequel to "Team Pop 'N Cheer" **

Mike and Quinn left their Glee assigned performance with enough of a satisfied feeling that they'd decide to keep on hanging out after they left school. They'd ended up stopping for a baby-craving snack stop, a little way from McKinley. Somehow, after ordering their food, they had ended up on something of a secret exchange. Quinn had told him about her pre-Cheerios snacking tendencies, which were 'just barely below pregnancy snacking,' which had Mike smirking.

"Well we all have our things, I guess," he shrugged. She gave him a look as though to say 'is that so?" He breathed out, taking a drink, thinking… He didn't know why on earth he was considering telling her about this, but then on the other side he didn't see why it should be anything… everyone had moved on, most of all him… "Okay, well… I sort of… used to have a, uh… used to have a thing for you," he nodded along, looking back at her. She had a mix of surprise and amusement in her face, her eyes.

"Really?" she chuckled, sitting up, giving a smirk. "When was this?" Now he sat up, thinking.

"Almost a year ago, I guess…" he nodded. "It was easy, I mean all of us there on the field or the court, and all of you on the sidelines, Cheerios," he mimed the pom pom shaking, renewing her smirk. "But you… you couldn't not be captain, because everyone would still have looked at you."

"Yeah?" she nodded, bowing her head.

"Wasn't just that though…" She looked up. "I don't know," he shook his head. "I just thought… you seemed nice…" She made a face as though to say 'really?' "Well, in your own way," he tilted his head, and she smiled. "It made me curious… happy…" She went on smiling, though there was that one question in her head that she had to ask.

"What happened? Why didn't you do anything, ask me out?"

"I was going to," he started. Without looking, he knew her face would be asking 'so what kept you?' "I missed my shot," he went on, looking at her. She was confused, but then it all dawned on her, just as Mike said it aloud. "It was the day Finn asked you, right in the middle of practice."

"Yeah," she nodded, twisting her straw about in her glass.

"I wasn't going to just…" he let the sentence drift. "I moved on in the end." She gave him a kind little smile. They both ate quietly for a while, but the revelation was still there, working through their minds, and it worked its way all the way into questions, possibilities.

"It's kind of crazy, isn't it? I mean think about it… If you'd actually gotten to ask me, before Finn… If we'd been…" She looked so taken over by all the 'what ifs' coursing and weaving along in her mind. "Everything, with the baby… If she'd even…"

"I did wonder, a couple of times. But then after a while it'd just get to be too much and I'd try not to think about it, you know?" She nodded. "Then sometimes I do think about it still, only the flipside of it… not our reality turned on its head but more like… a blank slate, and what could have been," she smiled; that sounded good.

"So what'd you think?" He considered the question, then looked over at her with a shrug.

"That it could have been good," he replied confidently. "But in the end, we all didn't end up in too bad of a place, I guess. You've got Finn, and I…" He stopped himself, took a drink. Quinn smirked, curious.

"And you… I think I know," she nodded. "Maybe this should tell you something." Now he was the one looking at her in confusion. "Don't let someone get ahead of you again before you make your move. Talk to her." He sat there for a while, taking in her words… She was right…

THE END

_[A/N: Attention, reader! If you're at all skilled in helping break fic-planning conundrums, give a big ol' shout! :D]  
(Note to self, don't put the words 'crack' and 'fic' next to each other, it leads to confusion ;))_

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**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**


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